15 Insurers Shift Stance on Asbestos

A group of insurance companies have rescinded their backing for Senate legislation that would end asbestos liability lawsuits in exchange for a trust fund to benefit victims, but other business groups moved quickly Tuesday to restate their support for a compromise trust fund bill.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said the decision by a group of 15 insurers would not scuttle Senate attempts to find a bipartisan compromise.

“I am confident we will have a bill,” Frist said.

The insurers, including Allstate Corp., Chubb Corp. and Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. said Monday that they believed that the impasse over how the legislation would work was “unfixable” and that they were “skeptical that a trust fund can ultimately provide the certainty and finality all parties seek.”

“For this reason, we respectfully suggest that efforts now be turned towards developing alternate legislation,” the insurers said in a letter to the Senate.

Several major corporations, including Federal-Mogul Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp. and DuPont Co., announced their opposition to the legislation effort in January.

Other business groups sent letters of support, urging senators to keep working on a trust fund.

“There remains broad support in the business community for your efforts,” the Asbestos Alliance, a group of companies facing asbestos claims, said Tuesday in a letter to the Senate.

The Senate has been stuck for years on how much money insurers and business groups should put into a trust fund.

Asbestos is a fibrous mineral that was commonly used until the mid-1970s in insulation and fireproofing materials. It has tiny fibers that can cause cancer and other ailments when inhaled, but the diseases often take decades to develop.

Senators say asbestos liability is driving companies out of business and leaving victims with little or no money for medical bills. A trust fund would speed money to those people and assure companies they would not be sued out of existence, supporters of the plan say.

In exchange for the fund, asbestos victims would give up their right to sue.